White Sox free agent signing gives NY Mets fans an added appreciation for Brett Baty

At only 26, Jarred Kelenic’s next goal will be to make the Chicago White Sox roster. Easier said than done. Rather than sign him for a cheap major league contract, the former New York Mets first round pick is going to Chicago on a minor league pact with an invite to camp.

A whirlwind career that began with the Seattle Mariners hitting under .200 in his first two seasons, Kelenic spent the last two seasons with the Atlanta Braves kind of doing the same bottoming out. Now a .211/.282/.376 hitter with a 30.6% strikeout rate, it’s fair to classify him as a bust.

The sixth overall pick from the 2018 draft hasn’t worked out well at either major league stop since the Mets traded him prior to the 2019 season. Settling on a minor league contract this winter should only have us feeling a little more appreciation for the direction fellow Mets first-round pick Brett Baty appears to be headed.

Brett Baty is trending up while Jarred Kelenic might have already peaked

A year after taking Kelenic in the first round, the Mets selected Baty with their first-round selection. It took him a while, struggling in 2023 and 2024. Even 2025 included a minor league demotion.

However, his overall results in 2025 were inspiring for what’s to come next. Baty’s trajectory is more common for a young player on the rise even if it wasn’t done to perfection.

A better defensive season and the ability to do more than play third base, we saw Baty finally explode with some power. 18 of his career 33 home runs came last year. Slashing .254/.313/.435 overall, he gave the Mets a promising year that suggests he’s nearing a finished product.

Although many of the Mets pitchers and even some hitters faded down the stretch, Baty had awesome numbers in the second half. He hit .291/.353/.477 with 9 home runs in those final 190 trips to the plate after the All-Star Break.

Baty will enter his age 26 season in 2026 with fewer doubts about his place on the team. Third base belongs to him right now with little competition unlike the past when Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio were viewed as possible hot corner thieves. Less pressure in that regard, witnessing how rapidly Kelenic has fallen from only a slight rise in comparison to Baty should have us feeling a little more appreciative. He still needs to go out and improve upon last year’s result. Is there any doubt he won’t?